


A Normal Life

by sofiaottoman



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dark, Disturbing Themes, Dubious Consent, Dubious Morality, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2017-12-21 01:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/894236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sofiaottoman/pseuds/sofiaottoman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone makes choices in their lives. Sometimes choices are like skimming stones across a placid lake; they send out ripples that effect our lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Normal Life

**Author's Note:**

> I intended to write this for melusinahp’s challenge One Prompt, Many Writers back in March. The prompt was “To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves.”― Federico García Lorca, Blood Wedding and Yerma. Although I wrote this in time and it is inspired by that prompt, I withdrew from the challenge, as I didn’t fulfil the criteria. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. I would love to know what you think.

It was just after dawn exactly thirty days since the last time Ginny Potter had been awake at that un-Godly hour. With a glance at her sleeping husband to check that she hadn’t disturbed him she slipped silently from the bed, grabbed her dressing gown and left the room. Silently she slipped along the hall, down the stairs, and into the kitchen.

It was a tradition of sorts that had started the summer after the Final Battle - Ginny would make Harry his favourite breakfast, just because. The tradition had continued once they started dating and into married life, it hadn’t deviated even when they had had the kids – even though Ginny had often had to retreat back to bed after when the kids were still very young.

Harry slipped into the kitchen at exactly six, looking sleep tussled and barely awake. “Morning,” she said with a smile looking up from the pan she was stirring. He mumbled something in response on his way to the table. Ginny used her wand to levitate the large cup of coffee that she had made earlier, and kept under heating charms to the table. Shaking her head she watched as Harry practically inhaled the hot drink.

\--

Harry peered through his fringe at his wife as she turned back to the stove and flipped the bacon. His lips curled as she relaxed into her task. Despite her innocent façade, there was a tension across her shoulders that he knew would stay for days. Did she really think he wouldn’t notice the love potion she slipped into the coffee? Auror training had taught him to detect all sorts of potions, even if they were hidden in food and drink. Not that he hadn’t noticed the first potion she had slipped him just weeks after the final battle: Constant Vigilance and all that.

Letting her drug him in much the same manner as Merope Gaunt had drugged poor Tom Riddle had seemed the right thing to do. There had also been a certain, almost ironic, charm to letting her think she could get away with it. It certainly made things simpler. After all, everyone expected them to get back together after the war and be ridiculously in love; marry, and then a small while later have kids. Taking that first laced coffee had been the easy option. It let him lead the life that was expected of him. It let him have the kids. Jamie, Al, and Lil were his life. He couldn’t – wouldn’t – give them up.

So he let Ginny have her little conceit, let her believe that he was blind to her scheming. Let her believe that, with the help of the potion, he really did love her. It was a small price to pay to be normal.


End file.
